The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-07-15
HINTS for Farmers Clubs.

A&4AIo 4VA - eS4 AAV4O S40Ao'
What Waldo F. Brown says of
Farmers Clubs in the Country Gentle
man may be Of interest and we here
reproduce the article:
have written before, perhaps more
than once. about farmers clubs, but the
subject is one of sufficient Importance
to bear frequent mention, for there is
not one club where there ought to be
ten, and would be if all farmers knew
how much of pleasure and profit there
could be got out of them. Twelve
years experience and observation leads
me to recommend club limited to
twelve or thirteen families, so that the
meetings will just 60 round in year,
the thirteenth family being useful in a
case of sickness or inconvenience of
entertaining on the part Of some other
family. The greatest help to success in
the work of running a club is good
programme. In fact, l have never
known club or grange to succeed we'll
without this. Some organizations pre-
pare a programme from month to
month, but we have found it much bet.
ter to prepare it year in advance and
have it printed in book form. In pre-.
pairing our programme three years ago,
we adopted feature which has proved
very satisfactory. We devote two of
our meeting to the reading of short Sc
lections. and briefly discuss each seleo.
ton At one of these meetings the
ladies read the selections, and at the
other the gentlemen. This gives each
member chance to bring up any ques-
tion he or she would like to have dis
cussed, and we never fail on these days
to have some spicy discuss 'ons, and the
meetings OF this kind are always full Of
interest. At our June meeting, one
selection brought up the question of
schools and taxing, and although the
selection was aimed at the folly and
danger of cramming and pushing young
children is school, incidentally the duty
of parents to the school, and methods
of imparting instruction, was brought
out, and as at least half a dozen of our
members are ex.teachers, many good
hints were given. Two Of the selections
called attention to the home life, and
the folly and sin of allowing the getting
Of money, and the rush and push Of
work to crowd out all that is sweet and
beautiful in the house. Another was
a plea for the good old times, or really
burlesque of them, and as the article
carried US back to the days when there
were no railroads, telegraphs, mails or
turnpikes, NO papers, no reapers, bind
ers or moving machines-when men
were imprisoned for debt, and hung for
petty theft-we began to realize how
greatly favored we were, and we heav-
ei no sighs for those "good old times." I"
Then an article from Ruskin taught us
that those who enj Dyed an excess of the
blessings of this life were thereby laid
under heavy obligations to their fellow
men to use these gifts for the benefit of
the race. Not single member failed
to respond when called up, and I know
that every one went home feeling that
the day had been proftably spent. Our
club is scattered, the extremes being
twelve miles apart, but as we are all To-.
Gated on excellent turnpikes and keep
good teams, we greatly enjoy the drive,
and think this, and the chance it gives
us to see the crops, one of the pleasant.
est features of the day. A club of six
families might be organized-if twelve
could not be found willing to join
and two meetings year held at each
farm; and where there are plenty of
young folks in most of the families, six
will make lively roomful.
l write on this subject frequently
because l hope to be instrumental in
the organization of many clubs, and l
think have been, for l have received
not far from two hundred letters asking
for constitutions, bylaws and pro-
grammes; and as l always have sur
plus printed, l have never disappointed
any who have sent for them. 1t seems
to me that our wives get more out of
the club than the men do. They hear
tily enjoy the ride and the holiday, and
do their part we'll ia the varied exer.
cises of the club, and most Of them give
a plain lunch, which is prepared with
but little labor. Try such a club for
six months, and you will wonder before
that time how you were ever willing to
do without IL.
1t will be seen by the foregoing that
the ladies of the farmers household
play quite conspicuous part at the
club here discussed, as they also do at
our neighboring Farmers Club, ofFul-
ton, just over the line, which is great
improvement according to our notions.
While. the farmers club may be made
useful in many ways to farmers and the
interest of agriculture, the club cannot